Dr.
Detlef Mertins,
an architect,
historian and
critic known
for his reinterpretations
of modernism,
was appointed
chair of the
department
of architecture and professor
of architecture
in the School
of Design effective
July 1. Dr.
Mertins practiced
architecture
and urban design
for nine years
with Baird/Sampson,
Jones & Kirkland
and on his own,
and in 1996
he completed
his doctorate
at Princeton
University with
the dissertation, Transparencies
Yet to Come:
Sigfried Giedion
and the Prehistory
of Architectural
Modernity.

Over
the past several
years, Dr. Mertins'
research has
focused on the
architecture
of Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe,
with major essays
published in
the exhibition
catalogues for Mies
in Berlin (MoMA,
2001) and Mies
in America (CCA/Whitney
Museum of Art,
2001). He is
currently preparing
a monograph
entitled, Mies
van der Rohe:
The Art of Transformation (Phaidon,
2004).

Dr.
Mertins came
to Penn from
the University
of Toronto,
where he received
his bachelor
of architecture
degree in 1980,
and has taught
in that faculty
of architecture,
landscape and
design since
1991, and held
a Canada Research
Chair in Architecture
since 2001.

He
has also taught
at Princeton,
Columbia, Harvard,
Rice and the
Architectural
Association,
London and was
a visiting scholar
at the Canadian
Centre for Architecture.

Dr.
Mertins succeeds
Dr. Richard
Wesley, who
served as head
of the department
for six years
and will continue
as chair of
the undergraduate
architecture
program.